History

Ringil was a great tower, raised by Melko to house the northern of the Two Lamps fashioned by Aulë to illuminate Middle-earth. The tower was extremely tall, rising to the stars, and shone like pale blue crystal. Melko claimed that Ringil and its southern twin Helkar were made of a strong, imperishable substance that he had devised; in reality he lied for they were made of ice (a material unknown to the other Valar). When Aulë's lamps were placed upon them (silver in the north and gold in the south) the ice melted and caused great floods to pour into the seas.[1]

Commentary

Christopher Tolkien noted that the story of the Lamps in its early stage was very different from the published Silmarillion. It is Melko, not Aulë, who built the two towers. The northern tower would be named Illuin (with the Sea of Helcar at its base), the southern tower would be called Ormal, and the name "Ringil" only appears as the name of the sword of Fingolfin. The one remaining influence from the older version of the story was that the fall of the towers created inland seas, a vestige of the notion that the towers had been made of ice that melted.[2]